Plea Deal In Place For Mahaska County Supervisor
Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk (seated right) was in court Monday for sentencing after pleading guilty to assault.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Mahaska County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Groenendyk was in court Monday morning for his sentencing after pleading guilty to a lesser offense of assault, which is a simple misdemeanor.
Rose Ann Mefford was the presiding judge during the sentencing on Monday.
The original charges stem from an accusation of domestic violence and a violation of a no-contact order earlier this year.
The plea reads as follows:
As a factual basis the defendant states that on February 6, 2021 in Mahaska County, Iowa he intentionally made physical contact with another and that such contact was offensive to this person. I was not acting in self-defense when I did this.
The defendant further states that this plea is entered pursuant to a plea agreement with the State of Iowa. The details of that agreement are as follows:
1. The defendant will request and the State will not resist the Court granting the defendant a deferred judgment.
2. The defendant would be placed on probation for a period of one year and pay the probation supervision fee.
3. A specific condition of probation is that the defendant complete an assaultive behavior class provided by Des Moines Area Community College or a similar facility and file proof of completing the class.
4. The existing No Contact order [protected party] be extended for one year with the specific condition that the defendant not be within 1000 feet of the residence of the protected party.
5. The defendant pay the court costs associated with this action.
If Groenendyk meets all of the conditions of his parole, his record will be expunged by the court.
The other Mahaska County Supervisors said they hadn’t considered any sort of censure towards Groenendyk in regard to the guilty plea, with Supervisor Wanders saying he believes the court handled it well.
An online petition calling for the resignation of Groenendyk has 160 signatures, but there is no way to verify the status of those signatures to their validity or address.
After court on Monday, Oskaloosa News asked Groenendyk if he had any comment. He said he didn’t want to make any comment and only wished to keep his children “out of it.”
In regards to the petition, Groenendyk said he believes “people don’t understand what’s going on and what’s happened. This is unfortunate.”
